83: From old newspaper reports
Twelve notes concerning a possible Pre-Maori race gleaned from old newspapers in a time when such finds actually got printed....
1. What happened to the Herekino stone image that was over 4’6” tall 15’ wide and had roughly human facial features carved into it? It has a hole in the top of the head for holding something and it sat on two stone slabs like steps. The local Maori called it “Toka Kopuru” and was first mentioned in 1921.
2. The Kaitaia (Orongotea) carving or Awatea Lintel, featured again on 19th January, was found deep in swamp and under 3 feet of clay, was dug up showing no Maori influence and only some natural northern Pacific style. It has been labeled as un-Maori, (not Maori like), but allowing the possibility of being an early archaic version of Maori carving. My belief it is 100% non-Maori as Maori were typically Polynesians from the Society Islands and surrounding islands who have no such style. If you just came from say Raiatea, would your style s not be that from which you were used to? Besides, this artifact was found in an area with numerous pre-Maori drains although academics have since said they were made by Maori. Yet these drains were under heavy forest and peat that had been in existence long before any Polynesian migration (around 1250AD). In fact these old inhabitants could have been wiped out by any catastrophic event or simply by the first Polynesian fleeing their war torn area of Raiatea and surrounding islands. Others have found old drains some many feet below peat bog excavated all around this country which suggests a very old race. Maybe just a small remnant remained when the Polynesians arrived? Some say this carving is not much older than 300 years. If that is the case why does it depart from Maori carving of 300 years ago in every single aspect? Why does a 300 year old carving include 3 dimensional aspects and has a spine – usually only seen in Easter Island (Rapanui) figurines? Why is there notching not used for at least 300 years before that? Why was it made for the top of a pole and not a doorway? There are far too many why's that are all ignored by Archaeologists and others who fail to recognize the uniqueness of this carving, and where and how it was found. The facts point to it being made well before traditional Polynesian immigration
3. Where is the 200cm x 36cm slab which is 5cm thick and had a very faint pattern upon it which could only be seen once angled to the light? It was found some 5 years after the Kaiatia carving near the same spot and has (unsurprisingly) completely disappeared. Is that because upon it were non-Maori designs comprising of figures with protruding spines coming from their bodies and at one end, a strange figure like a sword fish with many protruding spines. This board has never reappeared but I believe it still exists. Maybe when we produce our evidence it will 'magically' appear? (the article is shown below)
4. Elsewhere in the Pacific (it is said), there are evidences of a Pre-Polynesian culture on the islands. Little remains of this evidence so far.
5. An old article in 1916 mentions the rock drawings of the South Island noting that no Maori type symbols appear and that Maori at the time who saw it (even as recent as 1916) admitted there were others already here when their ancestors arrived.
6. At Arapuni in 1925, bones were discovered 30 metres below the surface in a rock strata layer which was dated as middle tertiary or Miocene period. That would predate any other theoretical cultural inhabitants and may be from the time of pre-history.
7. On Mount Karioi at Raglan, (once called Karuni in the ancient days) there were ceremonial stones, peculiar carved stone figures, and also a paddle that was too large for a person of ordinary stature to use. Limestone rocks on the mountains north side were present even though this mountain is 100% volcanic in nature and so had been carried there. Then there are the carved rocks near Manu Bay by the sea that we all are familiar with which still remain unprotected by unconcerned Maori (the reason is clearly because the rock contains no Maori symbols - no debate there!). There is an old reference to the word 'karioi-ana' I found, meaning some Maori knew of the cave under the mountain at Raglan.
8. Traditional Maori ancestry begins around 1350. It does not acknowledge Toi in 1150AD or those here before even he arrived. Maori are not the first but it would be clear that the first probably came from elsewhere where influence was from or to the greater Pacific area or Melanesia.
9. Elsewhere in NZ, an old kauri tree was found growing in an old kumara pit. This kauri was already several hundred years old which means the pits were there hundreds of years before Maori arrived. Yes, the evidence is there, although vaguely, of an ancient race that existed before the kauri forests grew, but they probably died out in a cataclysmic event of some kind. These ones would have been here long before even the ones we seek - who were here before the Polynesian immigration.
10. Maori take great care and respect with the bones of their ancestors. Yet there are countless stories of bones found which are stated to be not theirs and are covered, destroyed, disposed of, or at the very least treated with complete indifference. That indifference is seen today in regard to anything not Maori. Indifference to soemthing not your own is a Pacific trait, but not limited to the Pacific. If you can read into that indifference toward certain bones, you already know the answer as to whether those bones were Maori or not.
11. Then there is the legend of the Tokomaru canoe (which left Tahiti after a war) finally making landfall near Gisborne. From there the vessel coasted northwards round the East Cape, looking for places to settle, but finding them occupied by the tangata-whenua (people of the land) as they were described. They travelled on until they reached Rohutu, at the mouth of the river Waitara, (in an area where many odd artifacts have been discovered) and they dwelt there where they found more of the same people already living there - the native inhabitants of these islands; but Manaia and his party slew them, and destroyed them, so that the country was left for himself and for his descendants, and for his tribe and their descendants, and Manaia and his followers destroyed the original occupants of the country, in order to obtain possession of it. Possession (even in Pacific peoples thinking) being the right of ownership and control. This theme runs through the entire country as far as Maori are concerned. That trait was also prevalent in the Society Islands where those from Bora-bora slew and occupied the nearby island in the time just a few years before Captain Cook arrived.
12. There is also the discovery of the 7' skeletons in a cave at Whangaroa hidden carefully behind the roots of an old Pohutakawa tree. Up and down the country there are reports of large skeletons or large skulls, not very often as one. This is a practice intended to dishonor the dead as you would with a people of great stature you wished to destroy and prevent their spirits influencing you afterward. Read the beliefs of Maori to understand this practice. We know our cave has fully intact skeletons, which means they were dead and buried long before Maori arrived.
13. Where is the record of the Dendroglyph found near Te Whaiti in the Bay of Plenty ( only 29km from the Kaingaroa carving site). As we know, Dendroglyphs are only found in The Chathams and Maori scholars and Archeologists alike state the MoriOri never lived on Aotearoa. I have long maintained that they did - long before I found record of this Dendroglyph on mainland soil. (http://www.doc.govt.nz/documents/science-and-technical/sap246b.pdf)
When all of the above is considered, and with the above reports dating from 1874-1930 (and many more), you will note that over time in the last half of last century, the notion of a pre-Maori race has slowly been eroded from common thought and in written articles or books, even though Maori themselves back then (and many even now) acknowledge the existence of such in small pockets around the country - mainly Taranaki and the west of the North Island.
How will those we have labelled 'political' Maori deal with the eventual evidence we wonder?
